Biological tubular organs in our body are conduits for fluids, food and wastes. For example, the urethra is the conduit for urine between the bladder and the urethral meatus and it also functions to inhibit involuntary leakage. In stress urinary incontinence, urine may leak involuntarily when a person coughs or laughs, or under other conditions. Stress urinary incontinence can be managed by absorbents and surgical interventions.
While various approaches to treating urinary incontinence have been implemented, such approaches have been challenging. For example, implanting medical devices can have undesirable effects. One such issue may involve puncturing the bladder and/or blood vessels, and other damage to the bladder, blood vessels, nerves and muscles. These issues may be exasperated in women patients who have future child births. Another issue relates to the coupling of an implanted medical device to anatomical structures in addition to the organ being treated for incontinence, which can cause damage and further be difficult to implement with a desired/controlled result. For instance, relying upon coupling to other such anatomical structures for controlling flow through a tubular organ may result in inaccurate control relative to one or more of variations in the other anatomical structures from patient to patient, and to changes in the other anatomical structures over time after implantation.
These and other matters have presented challenges to flow control, for a variety of applications such as those involving biological tissue and flow therein.